Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-07-05
A Grand Celebration at Woodstock, COnD.-Tht
Speech Of Hon. John D. Long on The Day We
Celebrate" "A Comprehensive Review
o. Our HiSbry-Great Questions

John K. Buck, after which Hon. John ID.
Long was introduced and spoke as fol-
lows, the subject OF his remarks being
THE DAY WE CELEBRATE.
like the ring of the old word, ''Inde-
pendence Day" In me it wakes my ear
liest memory of patriotism. A boy again,
| l look out OF
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at MORN
and nv ewes fall on the flag OF the Union
/ floating above the roofs OF New England
hamlet. and hear the report of the musket
which on that sunrise every year our one
Revolutionary veteran fired from his door
step. | love TO recall the national brag and
boom that uncOnsciOusly filtered through
| the veins of every American citizen, and
made him as independent OF fortune as
our fathers declared themselves of Great
Britain in l716. question little, some
times, whether there is nowadays Just that
spice of Americanism which then made us,
perhaps provincial, but intensely loyal to
all that went with Independence Day."
1t certainly cannot be amiss-and Mr..
Bowen renders Il public service in his an-
nual report--to return for day to the
springs of our national independence, and
to revive the spirit that gave it birth. Let
us then 90 back to 1776, and recall the
scene and event which we now commemo-
rate, never forgetting that they were
ONLY LINKS IN THE CHAIN
which, under Providence, had been form
ed for centuries: and forming, let us in
Justice remember under English law and
the inspiration of English hearts. The
separation of the colonies from Great
Britain was the result of no single cause
Nor was it OccasiOned solely by reason of
a chivalrous devotion TO great principles
OF constitutional right or resistance to op-
preston. The vast territory of India,
stretching over half q continent, aud sunk
in the effeminacy and ignorance OF centu-
Iies of stagnatiOn, might for years and may
to-day submit to the rapacious sway OF
the British Isles, to the terror OF a superior
race, enrichiDg themselves at its expense:
Ireland, another beautiful Andromeda,
ylitteTing with emerald, might, through
centuries of injustice, be chained to the
rock of British suppression till her deliver
er, not with GorgOn's head, but with elo-
uuence of Parnell and Gladstone, shall res
cue her and set her among the cOnstella-
tons. But it was not written in the book
OF human destiny that the Christian and
liberal civilization ofthe New World, where
Jonathan Edwards and Thomas Paine
could alike find voice, the intellectual cul-
ture of New England, the growing mate
rial Importance of New York and Pennsyl-
vania, the high spirit of Virginia and the
Carolinss; nav, that of our colonies,
proud OF their lineage, devoted
to an independent faith, found
ing among themselves institutions of
learning, expanding apace with the very
grandeur and extent OF the new continent,
aud, year by yaar, conscious more and
more OF their rapid growth and coming
domain, should hang rs dependence on q
remote island in the Atlantic, more than
tine apple ripe and round should cling to
the stem, and shrivel there in premature
decay. In such q condition were the very
essentials To cultivate the spirit OF prog
Fess, OF independent citizenship, and OF
the right of intelligent meu chatng under
the. stupid naTTOwueS5 Ot the dolt who
happened at that time To cucumber the
British throne, to frame their own laws
and govern themselves. The divine right
of kings WAS
NOT A DOCTRINE THAT COULD THRIVE IN
SUCH 4 SOIL.
Aud no sooner did the colonies begin, as a
result of simple growth, 10 teel tnelr
power and to touch shoulders with one an
other in geographical and political SYM
pathy, than independence became inevl-
table and only sought occasion andapOlogy
for its own assertion
ITO this end had the instruction of the
mother country herself led. From her own
pulpits, in the songs Of her own poets, IN
the words OF her own OratOrs, in the prog
ress of her own craftsmanship, had for
centuries been flowing influences that were
lifting the individual man, levellng the
accidental potentate, and prOClaiming the
unimportanCe of those who govern
and the overwhelming consequence
and needs of the governed, even
/ 10 the humblest citizen. 1t was matter
Of indifference whether Burke and Chat
ham in England, and Adams and Otis and
| the town-meetings of Massachusetts, Bay
in America, lifted their voices in British
parliament or in Faneuil Hall or Penn
broke town-house. The words they spoke
were eternal truth and had no local habl-
/ tation or name. Under these circum-
stances allegiance to Great Britain was
nothing but habit and sentiment The
moment il came face to face in conflict
With right, il went TO pieces like bub-
| BILE. The moment il involved the sacrl-
| flee of a principle, the cost Of injustice TO
the smallest penny, il was gone forever.
I take it there was nothing in British op-
preston that bore with special hardship on
America. Ii is not likely that any maliCi-
Gus intent existed on the part of king or
ministry TO wrong and tyrannize over Us.
Both were, no doubt,
HONEST ENOUGH IN THEIR CONVICTION.
that we were stitf-necked generation,
turning in iugratitude on the parentsge
that had borne and nursed Us. The bur
dens at which We rebelled were slight IN
comparison with those We had previously
borne tor years, especially during the
wars with France. IN comparison with
those which in our recent Civil War we in
flictsd on ourselves they were next TO
nothing. II would be hard to point 10 the
man or community that prior to the out
break of bad blood, or except at its own
Invitation, suffered greatly in person or
property from British tyranny. Even the
Declaration of Independence, which We
commemorate to-day, incomparably glori-
ous "a tits in its enunciatiou of the great
underlying principles of equality and free
dom for all men, lacks something OF that
record Of specific grievances and acts
of oppression which We should eX-
pect in a statement made IN JUS
tifcation of rebellion and treason. II
would not be difficult to recits wrongs
which other people, like, for instance, the
peopleo of Ireland, have borne and still bear,
ten fold greater than those from which We
wrssted Independence. We who In recent
years to suppress rebellion, willingly eu-
dured excessive governmental interference
with personal rights, and who saw multi
tudes of new offices created and swarms Of
officials and standing armies In our midst,
can hardly refrain from smiling at the COM
plants so grandiloquently put in 1776.
Nor muSf II ha nVarlonHaI that pnost af